December 2011 : Indian Car Sales & Analysis

This is a discussion on December 2011 : Indian Car Sales & Analysis within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; The battle lines for 2012 seem to be drawn.
Skoda and Mahindra stand out strongest with a good 2011 behind ...

Skoda and Mahindra stand out strongest with a good 2011 behind them. For Skoda, it is going to be Rapid+Superb combo that is going to keep them in strong stead. Hopefully, they are diligently working on the after sales part. That should help the fortunes of Laura, too. And Octavia RS re-launch shouldn't be a bad idea either.

For Mahindra, the same after sales could undo quite a bit of good work done by the XUV launch. It needs to build up on this and not get carried away.

FIAT was as good as it lasted. I do not see it having the wherewithal to compete in this market. Good bunch of products backed by nothing. And I think it is time we started writing the epitaph for Mistubishi products. Another truly good product going down to human non-intervention.

Hyundai needs to get down from the high horse and listen more closely to the India Consumer's voice. High decibel advertising necessarily requires a good product behind it.

Rightly said some posts earlier about TATA. If they keep bungling on pricing like they did with Aria, they might as well look at the trucks to revive their fortunes. Ok. The Nano is on the roads now. It is time to stop basking in the glory of a pathbreaking product and start looking at penetrating the market further.

Chevrolet, Ford seem to be banking a lot on the success of one product. Quite dangerous for a company that is yet to make serious in-roads into tier 2 and 3 towns.

As for Maruti, I feel it seriously need a re-look at its aesthetics department. THe 'chalta hai' kind of products will not work for long in this market.

All in all, the consumer sure is having a ball of a time. With many launches on the cards, he is in for a treat.

Last edited by travelwriter : 3rd January 2012 at 19:03.
Reason: Spelling

Eon seems to have had some effect on i10/Santro sales, but overall Hyundai is selling more cars (Eon+Santro+i10) than they were before Eon launch - so they should be happy. Alto seems to be unaffected by the Eon, but I guess Eon may quicken the death of the A-Star and probably Estilo as well.

Corolla seems to have had a really bad month. Poor sales for Honda as well due to factors beyond their control. I read in the newspapers that they was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Japan recently. I wonder if it would further affect Honda and other Japanese manufacturers.

Rs.2L discount seems to have done almost nothing for the Aria.

Have the biggies (Audi/BMW/Merc) stopped releasing their sales figures?

I would say that Fiat sales are not as bad as they look, since they traditionally have poor sales in December (last December, they sold 274 cars) and they would also have stopped production due to the launch of updated Linea/Punto in January.

It is sad to see such a classic brand, which has the potential to provide awesome cars, can be going to the dogs and we enthusiasts can do nothing about it. Real shame. Much has been said about their engines, but that's just that. What more?

Being a management graduate, I am learning all the things one shouldn't do from the performance of Fiat and HM in India. Fiat is still better off as they have fantastic engines and a huge clientele to bank upon, unlike HM-Mitsubishi.

Someday, if I do get a wild-card entry into the automotive world, would like to be at the helm of affairs at Fiat and resurrect the brand and get it the respect and position it deserves.

Really sad to see the Honda sales dip even after the price cuts, especially the City. Floods in Thailand have bogged down the Brio and a few others, but what about the city? Close to 6K in August has now dropped ten fold.. Premium buyers waiting for Jan '12 for the facelifts and to prevent year end buys? Hopefully this should pick up in Jan,

Looks like Innova sales are doing really good (in spite of M&M XUV and Aria price drop). Could it be an indication that people prefer a reliable car with less features than a car with tons of features (and equal number of niggles/issues).

Interesting to see if XUV sales will continue after new launches later this month (Duster and Ecosport).

Any insights into the sudden rise in Scoda Yeti sales? Could it be due to 4x2 and pricing?

Thanks GTO for this report. One quick observation I had is the VW market share is more than Honda. I am surprised.

Is that really surprising? Honda has 1 car that can do 4K regularly (maybe 5/6K on a really good month). VW has 2 cars that can do 3.5K regularly. Once Honda's problems are over and (if) Brio starts bringing home volumes, Honda may have more market share than VW.

The Thailand floods have come at a really bad time for Honda. Whatever momentum the Jazz would've gained in the market due to the price-cut and facelift won't probably materialise now. Even Brio may have a tough time in the market. It was launched 2-3 months back and I have seen just 1 on the road so far. Most of the general public may have got the idea that the car is a flop.

Really sad to see the Honda sales dip even after the price cuts, especially the City. Floods in Thailand have bogged down the Brio and a few others, but what about the city? Close to 6K in August has now dropped ten fold.. Premium buyers waiting for Jan '12 for the facelifts and to prevent year end buys? Hopefully this should pick up in Jan,

Its more because of the supply chain issues mate. Trust me the New CE edition of the city has garnered a lot of interest specially due to the pricing of 6.99L. I am sure once the Flood situation resolves Honda will be back amongst the top players.

Is that really surprising? Honda has 1 car that can do 4K regularly (maybe 5/6K on a really good month). VW has 2 cars that can do 3.5K regularly. Once Honda's problems are over and (if) Brio starts bringing home volumes, Honda may have more market share than VW.

The Thailand floods have come at a really bad time for Honda. Whatever momentum the Jazz would've gained in the market due to the price-cut and facelift won't probably materialise now. Even Brio may have a tough time in the market. It was launched 2-3 months back and I have seen just 1 on the road so far. Most of the general public may have got the idea that the car is a flop.

I was surprised as being in India for more than a decade, Honda could not gain(or sustain) the market share. Generally in business people always look around and see what the competitors are doing and plan(or replan) their strategies. VW is less than half age when compared with Honda in India but their marketing strategies have tapped a decent share in Indian market. I still remember the bad reputation they have w.r.t. A.S.S but still they managed to overcome Honda.

What you said about Honda regarding the hurdles they come across is really explaining way they lost the battle to VW. But this should be an eye-opener for them and they should also increase their product lineup. IMHO if they could bring City in DIESEL and price it correctly then definitely they can do better than VW

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Please use the "edit" button if posting within 30 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

Last edited by Technocrat : 4th January 2012 at 04:22.
Reason: Please read the note in your post, thanks

The one thing to note would be that except for Maruti, no one is able to pull off the petrol hatch sales. They also have been reduced to depend on the Alto and Wagon R. That's a warning to all the other car makers thinking of bringing in a petrol hatch: whatever the efficiency. Unless there's a price correction of petrol there's no reversing this trend; even the smallest most efficient of hatchbacks will take a beating if it doesn't have a diesel engine.

Disagree to a certain extent - I think you missed out Eon , i 10 and Liva . I guess product pricing and conveying the value proposition is extremely key in addition to the importance of diesel in the portfolio . We Indians are good at working out the maths

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Its more because of the supply chain issues mate. Trust me the New CE edition of the city has garnered a lot of interest specially due to the pricing of 6.99L. I am sure once the Flood situation resolves Honda will be back amongst the top players.

Mohit , flood situation cannot explain the 1 grand figure - Honda showrooms quote a delivery within a couple of weeks . It can be impact due to postponement of purchase in anticipation of facelift version that could have affected the sales. { btw, didn't they mention achievement of higher localisation for the hefty price cuts ;-) }

Last edited by souravc : 3rd January 2012 at 21:40.
Reason: quoting Mohit

Thanks GTO for this report. One quick observation I had is the VW market share is more than Honda. I am surprised.

Yes it's just an aberration with Honda sales being affected due to floods in Thailand. I am sure with the facelifted city and production levels back to normal Honda will surge ahead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

SX4 is a clear loser. Eeco sales are down due to steep Petrol prices, while Ritz production may be curtailed for Swift. Kizashi at 51 is OK, considering its price! Time for Maruti to halt Estilo and do a complete revamp for A-Star. Or a Diesel Estilo / A-Star with a 1-liter engine will do the job for them, IMO. Beat proves it for Chevrolet.

Hyundai, even with Eon launch, not gained in hatchback segment. Eon eats into Santro and i10 sales, IMO. But Verna gathers volume for Hyundai. The extra 3k sales are clearly due to Verna.

Yes Sx4 seems to be rapidly losing ground. I guess they need to bring the new SX4 soon and not wait till 2013.

Eon seems to eat both into Santro and i10 sales. Both these models have seen a drop since the launch of eon. Overall numbers seem to have increased marginally but interms of value I think Hyundai is losing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chennai-indian

GTO,

Since these figures are dispatches to dealers, note that Ford has a 2 week long shut-down period in December (that I know of) which would mean that they would have had just about 10 to 12 days of Production so numbers maybe indicative of this. By the way, excellent analysis as usual. Thank you.

Yes these are despatches to dealers. Just like ford Maruti too had a week's shutdown.

Thanks a lot for the wonderful report GTO. I have never waited for anything apart from this report every month start.

Coming to sales, my two cents,

Nano seems to be well set for 7K units. Eon was a much better product than Alto or Nano (at present pricing) and the results can be very well seen. Hyundai top brass seems to be brainstorming in the right direction.

The least said about Fiat now, seems they wanna go the Mitsubishi way (down the spiral with HM).

Nissan has two good products, Sunny is really well priced and a good Caaar" for sure. Same goes for Micra. The puny A*S*S network needs to be pushed up soon.

And one company that I (and we all) are looking forward to is M&M. Just look how firmly they are setting their foot in the segment. I eel every % market share they increase is a pie cut from TATA Motors. They are just not going the way they should. Loosing ground on your strong hold is not senseful. Sumo is an old workhorse..Really old. Sumo Gold is just a new name to the same old one. Same goes for Safari, a cult vehicle loosing its shine all the way. Everybody respects Tata's for their firsts, but nobody wants to buy one. A serious note for TATA Motors stable.

What you said about Honda regarding the hurdles they come across is really explaining way they lost the battle to VW. But this should be an eye-opener for them and they should also increase their product lineup. IMHO if they could bring City in DIESEL and price it correctly then definitely they can do better than VW

I think Honda's troubles have been self-inflicted, due to their pricing and lack of diesel options. City lost to Vento and Verna in the C-segment and even after the price cuts, they weren't really been able to beat the Verna. Jazz has been a dud from Day 1. Civic/Accord/CRV have been also-rans in their segment for too long.

When they finally got off their high horse and corrected their pricing, their recovery has been derailed/delayed by factors beyond their control.

VW meanwhile have a well-priced all-rounder in Vento. The Polo is also a good car although I feel it's a little over-priced. However, VW have been able to successfully sell that "German Engineering" tagline to the public. To me, it's no surprise that VW has the lead. No doubt, Honda will recover from this slump but, to beat VW Honda needs both Brio and Jazz to do well. They cannot expect City to single-handedly help them beat VW.

A diesel City will help, but we all thought a diesel Corolla will obliterate the competition - did it really happen? Diesel has not helped the SX4 much either.